Heartlanders draw best crowd in team history, open up with loss to Steelheads

Coralville, Iowa – The Iowa Heartlanders drew 4,176 fans to Friday’s Home Opener, the best crowd in team history, but fell behind early and dropped 6-2 to the Idaho Steelheads.Ryan Dmowski scored a hat trick for Idaho. Matthew Boucher and Kevin Conley both tallied in their Heartlanders debut. Dmowski scored two in the first period and another on an empty-netter in the third. The Heartlanders look for revenge against the Steelheads Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at Xtream Arena.Trailing 3-0, Boucher scored the Heartlanders’ first goal of the season with six minutes left in the first. He took a Mitchell Balmas pass between the dots and slapped it into the top left corner to cut the Steelheads lead to two.Iowa’s second goal came via a five-on-three power-play goal less than two minutes into the second period. Conley rebounded a Zach White shot at net front and wrapped the puck around Steelheads' goalie Adam Scheel. The Heartlanders outshot the Steelheads, 16-14, in the second period.The Steelheads potted two more goals in the third. Both teams went 1-for-4 on the power play. Scheel earned the win for Idaho, stopping 27. Hunter Jones took the loss for the Heartlanders, saving 36 on 41 shots. 

Box ScoreThe Heartlanders are at home Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7:05 p.m. for Affiliation Night, presented by Allison Mackin, Realtor, With Watts Group Real Estate. The game features an Affiliation Rally Towel Giveaway to the first 1000 fans, presented by Allison Mackin, as we celebrate being proud affiliates of the Minnesota Wild and Iowa Wild.Single-game tickets, group ticket options, partial plans and season ticket memberships are available for Heartlanders home games at Xtream Arena.  Call 319-569-PUCK or visit iowaheartlanders.com/tickets for more information.